Plantation Crops in India – Old Year Questions

• The National Horticulture Board was created in 1984 and is registered as a society under the Act of 1860.
• It is based in Gurugram, Haryana.

• Coffee plants need a warm and moist climate to grow in tropical places.
• Tea, on the other hand, can grow in both tropical and subtropical areas.
• Coffee is grown from seeds, but tea is grown from stem cuttings.
• Both of these statements are true, so option (c) is the right answer.

• In India, the two main types of coffee are Arabica and Robusta.
• India only produces 3.4% of the world’s total coffee, with Karnataka being the biggest producer.
• Foreign countries love the taste of Indian coffee, which is why there is a high demand.
• Coffee plants need a temperature of 15-18 degrees Celsius and 150-250 cm of rainfall to grow well.
• Sloppy hilly terrain and loamy soil are the best for cultivating coffee.
• Karnataka provides 70.5%, Kerala 20.7%, and Tamil Nadu 5.4% of India’s total coffee production.

• The Chikmagalur district in Karnataka is well known for growing coffee, not sugar.
• India’s first coffee crop was grown here.
• On the other hand, Mandya district in Karnataka is known for sugar production, not coffee.
• Therefore, option (d) is the correct answer.

• The Pulneys mountains are right next to the well-known Kodaikanal mountain resort in Tamil Nadu.

• When the question was asked, India was the top producer and consumer of pulses and tea.
• However, according to data from the F.A.O in 2020, India dropped to 4th place in production.
• Even so, India is still number 1 in both production and consumption of pulses.
• Even with the large amount of pulses produced in India, the country still has to import from other countries.

• In 2007-08, India was the leading producer and consumer of tea.

• The Indian Ministry of Agriculture reported that India’s exports of agricultural products in 2015-16 were as follows:
  • Tea (4719 crore Rupees)
  • Wheat (1061.77 crore Rupees)
  • Unmanufactured tobacco (4373.45 crore Rupees)
  • Manufactured tobacco (2078.91 crore Rupees)
  • Flan (not mentioned)

• Assam is the biggest tea producer in India.
• In 2018, it had the most tea growing in terms of size and amount.
• 337.7 thousand hectares of land was used for tea plantations.
• Most of the tea in the Brahmaputra Valley is grown there.
• West Bengal comes in second for tea production.

• In the question hour, India used to bring in cereals, petroleum, and petrochemicals from other countries and send out tea.
• The amount of tea India exported in 2020-21 was only 0.25% of their total exports.
• India is the fourth biggest tea exporter in the world.

• The right answer to this question was choice (c).
• According to 2020 figures, the leading countries that export tea worldwide are:
  • Kenya (575,509 tonnes)
  • China (348,815 tonnes)
  • Sri Lanka (285,087 tonnes)
  • India (210,486 tonnes)

• Tea needs to be grown on a hill that slopes and gets around 150 to 200 centimeters of rain each year.
• This is the best possible environment for tea to grow in.

• Green Gold is a type of tea.

• Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka are the states that produce tea.
• Kanan Devan is in Kerala, Nilgiri is in Tamil Nadu and Darjeeling is in West Bengal.
• However, Girnar is located in Gujarat.

• Currently, the main crop grown in Barak Valley is Rice.
• Sugarcane is the second most important crop here.
• Since Rice is not an option, Sugarcane would be the best answer.

• India is the fourth biggest manufacturer of natural rubber in the world.
• Kerala makes up the majority (75.69%) of the rubber produced in India.

• Kerala is India’s biggest producer of rubber, making up 75.69% of India’s total rubber production in 2018-19.
• Ernakulam, Kottayam, Kozhikode and Kollam are the main rubber producing districts in Kerala.
• India Rubber Board is the fourth largest rubber producer and second biggest consumer in the world according to 2020 data.

• Kerala produces the most rubber in India.
• In 2018-19, 75.69% of India’s total rubber production was from Kerala.
• Ernakulam, Kottayam, Kozhikode and Kollam are the main districts in Kerala that produce rubber.
• India Rubber Board is the 4th highest rubber producer and 2nd highest consumer in the world in 2020.

• In India, coffee is mainly grown in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and some states in the North East.
• Rubber is mainly grown in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Karnataka, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur and other states.
• Tobacco is mainly grown in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and other states.
• Out of the given options, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are the two states where these three crops are grown.
• Therefore, option (a) is answer correct.

• The Ministry of Agriculture has grouped coconut, arecanut, palm, cocoa, and cashew nut together as plantation crops.
• The Ministry of Commerce also states that tea, coffee, and rubber are plantation crops.
• Therefore, all of these items – coconut, arecanut, palm, cocoa, cashew, tea, coffee and rubber are plantation crops.

• Assam is the best at growing tea, Andhra Pradesh is the number one state for tobacco (now Gujarat), and Karnataka is a great place for growing coffee.
• In Chhattisgarh, paddy is the most popular crop, not jute, so Answers 1 and 3 are correct.

• Assam is the number one tea producer. Andhra Pradesh was the main producer of tobacco (now it’s Gujarat).
• Karnataka is well-known for coffee production.
• Chhattisgarh is most famous for growing paddy, not jute, so options 1 and 3 are correct.

• When this question was asked, more than a third of all tobacco was produced in Andhra Pradesh.
• Data from 2018-19 shows that Gujarat is the largest producer of tobacco with 43.41% of the total.
• Andhra Pradesh is the second biggest producer.

• When asked, Uttar Pradesh was the biggest producer of tobacco among the given states.
• According to 2018-19 data, the main states that produced tobacco were:

State                               Tobacco Production in Thousand Tonnes

• • Gujarat –                                331.56
  • Andhra Pradesh –                140
  • Karnataka –                           71.57
  • Uttar Pradesh –                    56.00

• In 2010, Andhra Pradesh had the biggest area used to grow tobacco.
• In 2018-19, the four states with the largest tobacco-growing areas :
  • Gujarat (177.41 thousand hectares)
  • Andhra Pradesh (88.00 thousand hectares)
  • Karnataka (83.70 thousand hectares)
  • Uttar Pradesh (26 thousand hectare)

• Kerala was the top coconut producer in India in 2019-20.
• Karnataka is in second place and Tamil Nadu is in third place for coconut production.

• The Indian Government’s Ministry of Agriculture has reported that the top three coconut producers in 2019-20 (3rd A.E.) are :
  • Kerala – 36.11%
  • Karnataka – 29.34%
  • Tamil Nadu – 18.55%
• Coconuts are produced in large quantities all over the world, but the biggest producers are Indonesia, India and the Philippines.

• When asked, India produced the most Black pepper and ginger out of the given spices, with Guatemala being the leading producer of cardamom and Indonesia being the leading producer of cloves.
• This means that none of the given codes are correct.
• According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (2020), the top four pepper (piper spp.) producing countries are Vietnam, Brazil, Indonesia, and India.

• Kerala is the top producer of small cardamom in India, making up 65.77% of the total production.
• Although Karnataka has the highest production of black pepper in the 2020-21 agricultural year, Kerala is in second place.
• Since Karnataka isn’t an option, then the correct answer must be Kerala.

• Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are the main areas where cardamom is grown, while Odisha is not known for having cardamom production.

• Kerala has been known for its spices since ancient times.

• Kerala is famous for growing a lot of spices, and it is sometimes called the “garden of spices”.
• In 2019-20, Madhya Pradesh was the biggest producer of spices.

• Kerala is often called the “garden of spices” because a lot of spices are grown there.
• Data from 2019-20 shows that Madhya Pradesh produces the most spices.

• Cloves come from a small, evergreen tree in the Eugenia Caryophyllata Family.
• The buds of this tree are used as a spice in cooking, as well as in medicines.

• The 2020-21 data shows that clove farming is done in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Therefore, the question asked is incorrect.
• If the question had been which states do not farm cloves, then option (d) would be the correct answer.

• Correct match of the crops mentioned and their leading producing states is as follows :
  

  Crops	States
  Jute	West Bengal
  Tea	Assam
  Rubber	Kerala
  Sugarcane	Uttar Pradesh

• Black pepper grows best in a warm and humid environment with 200 cm of rain every year and in areas that have an elevation of 1100 to 1300 metres.
• The temperature should range from 15oC to 30oC annually.

• Cotton and wheat have been grown in India since ancient times.
• Tobacco, cocoa and rubber were brought to India by Europeans in the late Middle Ages or early modern era.
• These all originated in South America and this process is called the ‘Columbian Exchange’, named after Christopher Columbus.
• This exchange involved the transfer of plants, animals, culture, people, technology, diseases and ideas between the Americas, West Africa and the Old World in the 15th and 16th centuries.

• Black pepper is sometimes referred to as a “black diamond”.

• India is well-known for exporting spices and some fruits abroad.
• India also grows a large amount of pulses, which are not very expensive compared to other agricultural products.
• However, the main item that India has been importing from other countries is vegetable oil.
• India has to import almost 70% of the vegetable oil it consumes and the cost of these imports has been increasing for a long time.

• When the question was asked, Gujarat was the top producer of spices.
• According to the 2019-20 data, the production of spices in the respective states is listed below –
  • Madhya Pradesh – 3075.9 thousand tonnes
  • Rajasthan – 1058.9 thousand tonnes
  • Gujarat – 1009.9 thousand tonnes

• Data from 2019-20 (3rd A.E.) shows that the top three cashew nut producers in India are :
  • Maharashtra (181.14 thousand tonnes)
  • Andhra Pradesh (115.39 thousand tonnes)
  • Odisha (110.00 thousand tonnes)
• Maharashtra was also the top producer of cashewnut in 2014-15.